Candy Saves The Day

Neither Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov nor US Astronaut Leroy Chiao are ones to point fingers, but then, chivalry could be a function of appetite. During a news conference last week, the two men aboard the International Space Station admitted they were down to eating candy bars, trying to get enough calories in their systems in order to function, as they awaited the arrival of the latest Progress supply ship.

The ship docked Christmas Day.

"Both of us ended up losing a few pounds," said Chiao in a news conference from the station on Wednesday last week. "We looked at it as kind of a challenge, kind of a camping adventure, roughing it I guess."

Well, on a camping trip, you can often hike out to the car and drive to McDonalds. Not so aboard the ISS. Chiao and Shapirov's tenure aboard the station was solely dependent upon the ability of controllers to successfully dock the Progress capsule and it's 2.5 tons of supplies with the ISS. Had that not happened, it wouldn't have been long before Chiao and Shapirov would have had to climb into their emergency Soyuz and head back to Earth.

"We had to kind of cut back to about half rations of what I would call real food -- meat, potatoes, vegetables. We had to supplement and make up for part of that calorie deficit with sweets," Chiao said, quoted by Reuters. "It was not an unhealthy diet but not an ideal diet."

But their troubles aren't over yet. Leroy Chiao, please call your dentist.

FMI: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/station